Neighborhood where parents say a man took their daughter's picture (WLFI)

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Two Lafayette parents are warning people about what they call a “creepy encounter” with a man in Coventry Glen neighborhood last weekend.

Some things scare kids but don’t bother adults. However, this story terrifies adults but may not alarm children.

“She even said, he was really nice mom, so that made me even more fearful,” said Brittany Outlaw.

Brittany and Max Outlaw’s 10-year-old daughter came home Saturday night with an unsettling story.

“She told us that she was helping some of her friends walk this gentleman’s dog,” said Brittany Outlaw.

When the kids returned to the man’s house, he asked to take the Outlaw’s daughter’s picture.

“She wasn’t really comfortable with that,” said Brittany Outlaw. “It ended up that instead of just her picture, the picture of her and these two boys and the dog was taken.”

The daughter said after he took the picture he then gave them money for pizza so they could come back and eat it with him, but they declined. The Outlaws say they couldn’t think of an honest reason for the man’s behavior.

“He’s a pervert,” said Max Outlaw. “You don’t want to think that way, but she’s a cute little 10-year-old girl and you’re a grown man asking for her picture and you don’t know her.”

Brittany Outlaw added, “All these thoughts are running through my mind about what could have happened or what his intentions might have been.”

The Outlaws called Lafayette police about the man but besides questioning him, police couldn’t do much. They can’t even make him delete the picture because it isn’t sexual in nature.

“That’s frustrating,” Max Outlaw said. “The fact that she’s not only a minor, but she’s 10 and he’s 44 with no children and you have a picture of my daughter. I don’t know what he can do with that picture; I don’t know what he has done with that picture.”

“I feel like there should be something in place that could protect her and other children,” Brittany Outlaw said.

But if the law can’t protect their daughter, the Outlaws hope parents can help prevent something like this from happening to others.

“I hope that parents realize how important it is to talk to your children,” Max Outlaw said. “Honestly, if we didn’t, who knows if we would have known about this.”

Or what it could have led to?

“Exactly,” responded Max Outlaw.

The Outlaws say they hope the man deletes the picture. Lafayette police said he’s on the department’s radar for future incidents.